bigglesfandomcom-20200215-history
De valschermspringers (Vandersteen comic)/plot
Strolling through the streets of London while on leave, Biggles meets Patricia Nelson, the wife of his wartime comrade Jack Nelson. Patricia tells him that Jack has changed. Once a crack parajumper with the secret service, Jack used to be sent on the most dangerous and demanding missions. Now he spends most of his time drunk. Biggles extracts Jack from a nearby pub and brings him back to his hotel room. Jack tells him what happened. During the war, he had parachuted behind enemy lines. On the ground, he met a little girl whose parents had been killed in an air raid. The girl was hungry, cold and homeless. Jack took the girl with him. Suddenly the girl pushed him aside. She had just saved him from a sniper. The sniper's bullet missed Jack but struck the girl instead and she died in her arms. This experience so traumatised Jack that he began to drown himself in alcohol. Biggles believes that he can make a man of Jack again and encourages him to join the International Air Police as a parajumper. Biggles faces some difficulty getting Jack admitted but eventually Jack is accepted and posted to the parajumper camp in Hong Kong. Peter Gilson, another Air Police parajumper, knows of Jack's reputation for drink and bar fights. He does not welcome Jack's arrival and trips him up, hoping to provoke a fight. But Jack refuses to respond, telling Peter to wait until the free fall exercise--that would be test enough of one's mettle. Jack and Peter become rivals through the period of training, competing in everything. The time comes for the final free-fall exercise where the two compete to see who can reach the ground first. The two jump at three thousand metres. At first Peter is in the lead but he loses consciousness before he can pull his rip cord. Jack, seeing that Peter is in trouble, dives after him and grabs his body. He then deploys his own chute, allowing both to descend to a safe landing. The parajumpers at the base carry Jack on their shoulders round the base in a triumphant procession. Biggles is delighted to see Jack back to his old self. He has more good news for him: Patricia will be flying in the next day on a visit to Hong Kong. But Biggles doesn't have time to join in the celebrations that night. Colonel Lottison wants him to watch the airport for a dangerous international spy named Dillonk. Unfortunately not much is known about him, not even how he looked like. Going undercover as a member of the ground crew at Hong Kong airport, Biggles spends a week watching the departing passengers. He meets Jack Nelson. He is there to send off Patricia, who is boarding a flight to Manilla. Jack spots a bearded man who looks vaguely familiar but can't tell who he is. Then Biggles mentions the name Dillonk and the penny drops. The bearded man is Dillonk! Jack had met him when he was down and out pub crawling. And now Dillonk has boarded Patricia's Flight 554. Biggles and Jack rush to the control tower to call up the flight. The captain gets the message and asks Jenny, the flight stewardess, to get the passenger manifest. Dillonk overhears this and senses that he might have been discovered so he must make his move immediately. He goes to the cockpit and hijacks the aircraft, directing it to fly over the jungles north of Manilla. Dillonk orders the crew to fetch his bag from the cargo hold. Bukert, the radio operator goes and gets it but takes the opportunity to get out his own gun. Unfortunately Dillonk discovers this and there is a shoot out in which Bukert is hit in the shoulder. Perhaps Bukert shouldn't have risked it. For Dillonk next puts on a parachute which he takes from his bag and then jumps out of the plane. The ordeal is over--but no! Dillonk's bullet had passed through Bukert's shoulder and has struck Patricia in the head. She needs urgent medical help but the aircraft is short of fuel. The captain decides to land on a beach to offload the passengers and cargo. He then takes off again with Patricia, Bukert and Jenny. Now with a lighter load, he thinks he might just make it back to Manilla on his remaining fuel. But it doesn't work out and the plane crashes into the jungle. Fortunately all the occupants survive. They make a smoke signal and are spotted by a reconnaissance aircraft. A rescue expedition is sent out but it will take a few days to reach it. Meanwhile an aircraft drops food and medical supplies. Unfortunately, the plane had crashed near Dillonk's drop zone. He had just been attacked by a wild boar which had injured his leg and eaten all his supplies. He hobbles to the crash site and commandeers the supplies at gunpoint. The crew strike up a compromise with him--if he will let them use the supplies to treat Patricia, Jenny would help treat his injured leg. Meanwhile, Biggles and Jack Nelson have flown to Manilla. They view enlarged photos from the reconnaissance aircraft. One of them shows Patricia has been injured. Another shows Dillonk moving in the neighbourhood. Biggles and Jack fly out to have a personal look at the crash site but Dillonk spots them. He pulls out a submachine gun from the cases of relief supplies and shoots at their aircraft, forcing them to withdraw. Back at Manilla, Jack and Biggles plan a risky rescue operation. They must do a nighttime freefall (or HALO) drop into the crash site from high altitude. This would minimise the chance of Dillonk hearing the aircraft and being alerted. The jump goes through without serious mishap except for Jack getting a bad headache from bumping his head. They approach the crash site as quietly as they can. But just then Jenny is bargaining with Dillonk for some water for Patricia and she hears a noise and turns her head. This alerts Dillonk who now lies up his hostages against the plane and threatens to shoot them at the least hint of trouble. Biggles realises that they have been rumbled but Jack proposes a new plan. They must split up. He moves in noisily and draws Dillonks fire. Meanwhile, Biggles steathily approaches from behind and overpowers the hijacker. With the crash site now secure, a doctor is parachuted in the next day to treat Patricia. The survivors are picked up by the rescue expedition which arrives a few days later. Category:Plot summaries (derivative works)